One of the major factors contributing to an organization’s sustainability, especially for web application companies, is the carbon footprint associated with IT operations. Gartner Research has estimated that the IT sector accounts for 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions and that, “despite the overall environmental value of IT, Gartner believes this is unsustainable.”

One of the ways many organizations cut costs and emissions is by outsourcing and virtualizing their IT operations. For instance, many web startups host their applications with services like Heroku and Engine Yard. Outsourcing and virtualization helps, but the main disadvantage is that it’s difficult to monitor the power usage (and footprint) of your application.

This is where Tronprint comes in. Tronprint keeps a running total of your application’s resource usage as it runs. This resource usage translates into the total amount of electricity used by your application. You can even tell Tronprint where your application is hosted, and it will take the server’s local electricity source into account when coming up with an emission estimate. For instance, a server powered by a coal power plant is dirtier than one powered by natural gas.

Brighter Planet helps clients identify opportunities for data-driven sustainability initiatives, designs programs around these opportunities to deliver business value, and assists with integration and development